Hey folks! Today I wanted to share a recipe that’s so simple and easy but a real comfort food. One of my favorite things about food, besides it being delicious, of course, is that certain dishes have the ability to take you down memory lane. A single bite can remind you of a certain someone or somewhere or just a time in your life. That’s exactly what this Spicy Tuna Melt does, believe it or not I never had a spicy tuna melt of any kind until I got to college 😅. It never seemed like an appealing thing to me…warm tuna with cheese…I don’t know, past Sana was not buying it 🤨. However, a time came when so many people’s love for it was starting to sway me. There must be something appealing about it, right? Despite my wariness I gave it a go and ohhhh boy, was it good. It wasn’t what I expected at all. The tuna was crispy from the griddle and spicy from the spicy mayo and the cheddar melted on top gave just the right amount of kick. It was all laid on a bed of creamy avocado slices and then the whole sandwich is toasted on the griddle ensuring a crisp bite every time. Cue the rest of my college career including a trip to our little school cafe, Roots, to get a Spicy Tuna Melt (always with a side of Raspberry Italian Soda). Shout out to Roots for never letting me down when I needed my spicy tuna melt. Any time of day or night you came through for me; whether it was from a long study night at the library or me just wanting a second dinner or me just being near Roots. This was my first time trying to make it at home and I would say I was pretty darn close. Let’s get started with the recipe, shall we?
Ingredients:
- 1 can of tuna in water, drained
- 1 tablespoon mayonnaise
- ½ tablespoon sriracha
- ½ avocado, peeled, pitted and sliced
- 1 or 2 slices cheddar cheese
- 2 slices of white bread, of your choice
- Butter or oil for the pan
Directions:
I’ve been watching a lot of Jamie Oliver these days and on one of his shows “Jamie’s Quick & Easy Food” he makes countless dishes with just 5 ingredients and he starts by saying “You mustn’t confuse simple with not delicious” and I think the same can be applied to this dish. It’s such a basic and simple sandwich, granted I’m not using the most LUXURIOUS ingredients, but with a little bit of technique it can be so delicious and just comforting. Now to start you can make your spicy tuna which, might I add, can be used in many other recipes (i.e. spicy tuna rolls, salads, rice bowls). Whatever tuna you use is up to you but there are lots of canned tuna that can be good quality and delicious. I mean, don’t go crazy with quality…this is still just a spicy tuna melt hahaha. Make sure you use one stored in water and not oil because it’s all going to be drained and you don’t want to waste any nice oil for this. In a bowl mix the mayo and sriracha and guess what? You just made spicy mayo! I know…so easy! It also is just a delicious condiment on basically everything! Fries, burgers, sushi, fried chicken, you name it and you can add spicy mayo to it! Sorry for all that excitement, but some things are worth getting excited over. Add the tuna to the spicy mayo and then just mix it thoroughly.
I stored this in the refrigerator while I peeled and sliced my avocado and prepared my bread. For the bread you can either leave it plain and just pan fry it after everything is assembled or you can give it a light toast to begin. I personally like having both sides of my bread toasted so I put it in the toaster for a few minutes. While this is happening you can heat up a pan with a drizzle of oil. Let it heat up on medium heat. After a few minutes you can scoop a little over half the tuna mixture straight in the hot pan.
Immediately, it will start to sizzle and that’s a good sign. After a minute you can put on your cheese slices. The cheese you use is another way to customize it to your taste, use what you have or what you like best. Now, I do think a type of Cheddar is most authentic. My university definitely used a yellow sliced cheddar, what it was exactly, I’m not sure. I chose to use Cabot’s Vermont Sharp Cheddar Cheese and although it wasn’t the bright yellow that I was used to seeing it was still pretty close in taste (maybe a tad sharper than the original).
After putting the cheese on, add the smallest splash of water to the pan and then cover it so it steams up and melts the cheese. It should take 2-3 minutes. In the meantime place the avocado on one slice of bread to prepare it for the tuna. Once the cheese has melted you are ready to transfer the tuna. This was definitely the hardest part 😅. It’s not a patty or anything, nothing is keeping the tuna together so transferring can be a bit tricky. Using two spatula really helped. I used one to quickly slide under the now crispy tuna and another to hold in front of the tuna so it doesn’t move forward as you slide under it. And with one quick motion the tuna is up and then you just lift it and push it over the avocados.
Top it with the bread and then just to bring it all together, in a pan, melt a little more butter or drizzle some more oil and then quickly pan-fry both sides of the sandwich. Just a minute on each side should be enough to brown it and crisp it up. Slice it on the DIAGONAL, that’s important, if you do it down the middle you basically ruined the entire dish and don’t even BOTHER eating it. Why would ANYONE cut their sandwich down the middle. Okay, I’m just kidding you can cut your sandwich however you like, but to stay authentic do it on the diagonal. Serve it up with an Italian soda and you’re basically at UMass. I would often eat it with a Raspberry Italian soda on the side but I did start to experiment with other flavors later in my college career. Another favorite was a Raspberry Lime or anything with Mango. Oh so refreshing, now I want one 🥺!
Do you have any dishes that take you down memory lane? Let me know, down in the comments below!
Spicy Tuna Melt
Ingredients
- 1 can tuna in water drained
- 1 tablespoon mayonnaise
- ½ tablespoon sriracha
- ½ avocado peeled, pitted and sliced
- 1 or 2 slices cheddar cheese
- 2 slices white bread of your choice
- Butter or oil for the pan
Instructions
- Mix together mayonnaise and sriracha to make spicy mayonnaise.
- Add drained tuna to spicy mayonnaise. Mix thoroughly.
- Heat pan on medium-high heat for a 1 or 2 minutes. In hot, oiled skillet place half the tuna mixture. After about a minute put cheese slices on top. Switch to medium to medium-low heat.
- Splash a bit of water on pan to generate steam and cover the tuna and cheese to melt. While cheese melts, peel and slice avocado slices. Place avocado on one slice of bread.
- Once cheese melts turn of heat and then transfer tuna and cheese mixture onto avocado bread with two spatulas. One spatula will slide under tuna and one will hold tuna on the side to stop it from sliding around. Cover with other slice of bread.
- On medium heat, heat up pan with oil or butter. Quickly pan fry sandwich on both sides until golden brown. About 1 minute on each side.
- Another sandwich can be made with remaining ingredients.
- Serve immediately with something refreshing!
- Enjoy!
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If you tried out a recipe and enjoyed feel free to leave a review and comment down below. I would love to hear what you thought ✨
March 5, 2020 at 6:52 pmLooks so delicious, mashaAllah! I’m sure it’s better than Roots!
March 5, 2020 at 9:25 pmSuch high praise, thank you! Definitely try and let me know 😀